Montgomery Josh — Creating a SCA Combat Ready Ballista

Name: Montgomery Josh (Joshua Berry)

Title: Creating a SCA Combat Ready Ballista Based Off Period Designs

Category: Combat Ready War Machines

Location: Iron Bog

East Kingdom Wiki: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/wiki/Montgomery_Josh

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KiltedFilkerWorkshop

Details on the Design Changes from Period to Modern Combat: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/images/2/2e/Biggus_Stickus_Design_Changes_From_Period.pdf

Hello artisans! I am excited to present my deadly work of art, my Roman Torsion Ballista named “Biggus Stickus”.  This fully functional siege weapon saw action at Pennsic 51 where it “killed” myriad Midrealmers during melee combat, and at Ghosts Ghouls and Goblins where it launched pumpkins into the spooky sky to the delight of the audience.  Videos of the engine firing at Pennsic and GGG are on my YouTube channel.  As the weather gets colder, I am in the process of fully documenting the build with both YouTube videos and published PDF’s.  As I update the plans I will publish them, both period and the Biggus Stickus class of combat ready siege engines.

I started by researching a “period right” Roman Rock Thrower which resulted in creating plans for what one would have looked like, and then built this at a small scale.  After displaying the model and riginally planned changes at Birka, I adapted the design for SCA combat use so it could shoot either 5 siege bolts or a large siege ammo, and then built this engine from those plans, making changes as I built and tested it.  I documented the changes from the period design and the changes made while building in a document linked in my wiki (https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/images/2/2e/Biggus_Stickus_Design_Changes_From_Period.pdf).

This project was equal parts research and “Engineering Architecture” as it was the craftsmanship in making and testing the engine.  I tried to keep to the spirit of the original designs while making changes so this could be used in live Rattan Melee balancing power, usability, and rate of fire so it would be both beautiful and functional on the battlefield.